It's a Small World!

I met my second cousin! Nick Ballam! What a small world!

 

 

I spent 30 minutes looking through this book with Nick! I had the biggest smile on my face the whole time!

This is what I found out about my Grandma Welch in the book!

Our awesome investigator, Igor!

 

 

Dear Everyone!

This Christmas week has been so amazing! It has been full of the spirit of  Christmas. As you know I Skyped home, but I'll still include things I said just so everyone can hear. Monday we took the metro down to DC to have a brunch with a member of the DC 3rd ward named Cesear! He is such a great guy and has devoted his life to the missionaries. But he isn't one of those creepy one, he is just so sincere and kind! That night we went carolling to some less actives homes with the Andersons! It was such a blast and the spirit was greatly felt. 

Tuesday morning we had an early lesson with an investigator named David. He likes to feed us breakfast as we talk with him, we tried to extend a B-date but he said that he wasn't ready for it and basically denied us. We will work with him to get his life settled out so he can do that! We had our typical meetings and got our Christmas Packages. We found out that one of our ZL's didn't get anything from his family so we put money together and got him stuff for Christmas! It was so amazing being able to do that. His excitement Christmas morning when he woke up to presents was priceless. That night we went to the VC for Festival of Lights with the Frenchies which was great! It was Polynesian night so that was amazing, and the spirit was very strong there as well.

Wednesday we had appointments with Harold ( the crazy for missionaries one). He threw us a little Christmas party which was very nice of him to do. That night we had a lesson with two investigators who don't speak English. They speak Portuguese so we had someone translation for us, it went well but was hard to bear testimony. He denied a b-date because he had already been Baptized so we will work with him on that as well.

Thursday was Christmas Eve. We had another breakfast with David and finished teaching him the Plan of Salvation. We then helped someone move into a close by ward for the remainder of the proselyting day. We had an appointment with our golden investigator Igor, and let me tell you how ready for this gospel he is.

Christmas morning we woke up early to unwrap presents. And I am very grateful for everything that was given to me( thanks mom, and Brian & Shanna, yes this basically is a shout out.) We then went to the visitor center where the Cookes bore testimony. Following that we got to watch a little Christmas thing the APs put together and then Inside Out. Yes they totally let us watch a movie! We had a lunch at the stake center and a little talent show. The Cookes gave each one of us a Christmas card, Book of Mormon with their testimonies and a mission bookmark. We then got to Skype home and that was tons of fun! We spent the remainder of the night at the Landeriths home and had a blast!

Saturday and Sunday we got to go to the Festival of Lights. Sunday was with Igor and he is an all around great guy! There were bands that performed which was nice to hear their music. We had a lunch with the Ballams who I found out is my second cousin! We were sitting in their dining room and their little girl asked about great grandma Israelsen. I asked how old she was and from there found out that Brother Ballam's grandpa is Lyle (Eva's son) so they pulled out the heritage book that was put together and sure enough we are related! Nick Ballam is his name, we talked about uncle Lyle's cabin and such! It was such a great lunch! 

I hope everyone has had a Merry Christmas!

 

Love, Elder Bentley